It is known in the art of article carrying conveyors to provide guide railings along the conveyor path to restrain articles being conveyed therealong against falling off the sides of the conveyor.
FIG. 1 shows a conveyor with a conveyor guide railing assembly of the prior art. A conveyor beam 10 supports a chain 12 that moves therealong to convey bottles such as 14. Left and right guide railing assemblies 16 and 18 are mounted on uprights 20 and 22 to provide lateral guidance for bottle 14. With respect to assembly 16, a metal sheath 24 grips a polyethylene insert 26 under the influence of clip 28 and bolt 30. The fingers of clip 28 are urged inward as bolt 30 is tightened due to the generally concave shape of the bottom 32 of clip 28.
The shortcomings of this assembly include the difficulty of keeping insert 26 in sheath 24 on both vertical and horizontal curves. Also, the railing assembly tends to slip longitudinally, or in the direction of the conveyor path and the railing, because of the difficulty of attaining adequate clamping force on the sheath 24 and insert 26.
Other rail mounting assemblies are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,325,131; 3,491,873; 3,669,244; 3,788,457; 3,854,688; and 4,225,035.